Ethics for Members

"The inclusion of solid ethical considerations in our field is necessary not only for the protection of patients and clients in the practice of body psychotherapy, but also to strengthen its image in society where, among other things, it also acts as a guardian of democratic values, sanity and rationality."

Mariella Sakellariou: Ethics Committee Chair

Each full member who has fulfilled the professional criteria of a European body psychotherapist and is an EABP member in good standing agrees to abide by the EABP Ethical principles.

Body psychotherapists recognise that in all therapy, training, supervision and consultation, they are professionally involved in varying degrees of asymmetrical relationships. They have the primary responsibility for appropriateness of content, context and boundaries. Their actions are therefore governed by their perception of the requirements of the relationship in question. They realise that their goals are influenced both by their overt actions and their state of being.

They accept responsibility for keeping up with new developments in psychotherapy, for improving and updating their skills and knowledge, for obtaining advice and support from their colleagues and supervisors – and when necessary for seeking therapy themselves to resolve personal problems.

In providing services, body psychotherapists seek to maintain the highest standards of their profession. They accept the responsibility for the consequences of their acts and make every effort to ensure that their services are used appropriately.

Ethics Guidelines

• • English
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Portugese
  • Russian

Ethics Committee

The Ethics Committee consists of five people, elected at the General Assembly.

The Chair is a non-voting member of the Board of Directors.

The committee deals with all matters touching on the ethical code, procedure for complaints, ethical advice and similar professional issues.

It also acts as an information resource to EABP members on ethical issues.

The work of the Ethics Committee can be summarized as follows:

• To look for ways of maintaining the spirit of the EABP within the Association
• To promote discussions on the attitude of an EABP body psychotherapist
• To define the forms of behavior which are incompatible with the ethical guidelines and ways of dealing with members who use such behavior, as well as to collect, analyze and process complaints and information that has been received on ongoing ethics cases
• To work on possible areas of research relevant to the clarification and development of ethical positions
• To implement ways of improving self-regulation and exploration in the membership
• To promote the teaching of ethics in training schools and institutes.